


Ink

by Sir_Bedevere



Category: Hadestown - Mitchell
Genre: F/M, Loving Marriage, Surprises, Tattoos
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-12
Updated: 2019-06-12
Packaged: 2020-05-02 03:22:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,814
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19190914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sir_Bedevere/pseuds/Sir_Bedevere
Summary: Hades comes to meet Persephone at the end of one summer, and he has a surprise for her.





	Ink

**Author's Note:**

> Set sometime before, when life was easier.

He came up on the train to meet her, and she couldn’t be more pleased to be away from Ma a day or two early. The old lady had been mighty vexing the whole summer. 

“Wasn’t expecting you, lover,” Persephone grinned, half leaping into his arms, and damn the witnesses. Thought for a minute she’d knocked him off his feet, but he caught her alright and buried his face in her hair. 

“Got a surprise for ya,” he mumbled. “Didn’t want to wait to give it over.”

Persephone didn’t care much for surprises, or for gifts – having him come up on the train was good enough on its own – but she wouldn’t make trouble. She wriggled from his arms and threw her own around his neck. The station was quiet, that time of night. Ma hadn’t come with her, and any Shades hanging around had already been shepherded onto the train by Hermes. Now only her brother was on the platform, picking at his teeth, and pretending he wasn’t watching ‘em. 

Well, let him watch. She didn’t care. 

Instead, she kissed her husband, pulled his head down with a hand on the back of his neck, felt him flushing under her palm. He knew Hermes was watching too. Hades had been busy growing his moustache, so it seemed. Persephone wasn’t sure that she liked it, but she wouldn’t make a fuss. Not when he was holding her so gentle in his arms, and kissing so sweet, and she just wanted to go home. 

“C’mon,” she said. “Let’s do this a little place more private, huh?”

“Sure,” he smirked. 

Hades’ carriage was nicer than the ones the Shades got to travel in. He’d done it up real nice when he realised Persephone was gonna be travelling up and down so often. They’d made the most of the soft velvet seats over the years, whenever they were together, and she’d made the most of the bar whenever she was alone. 

She put her bag down on the bar and watched as he carefully stowed her suitcase out of the way. Always so deliberate, even now when she was sure that he wanted nothing less than to jump her bones. She definitely wanted to jump his. It had been a long summer. 

She picked out a bottle, poured a drop of poison into a glass. He turned to watch her and shook his head when she offered him the bottle. But his eyes were on her as she put the glass to her lips, and she grinned, sure that he was watching her throat working. The carriage was warm and a bead of sweat rolled down his forehead, and she put out a hand. He took a step closer, his eyes burning, and she wiped away the sweat with a fingertip. As she touched him, he caught her wrist and kissed it, his lips lingering there. 

She chuckled, and put down her glass.

“Yeah, I know. I missed you too.”

The train jerked to life, and Hermes sounded the whistle to let everyone know that she was on her way, should any of ‘em be caring enough to listen. Hades’ grip didn’t loosen on her arm, and he led her over to the seats. He never really relaxed proper until they were on their way back home. Persephone followed him gladly; she’d seen the fire in his gaze well enough, and was sure she had some to match. They were not gonna make it home this time, that was for sure. 

She sat down and grinned up at him.

“Been keeping busy?” she asked, like neither of them knew that all he did when she was away was keep busy. Busy with his papers, busy with his numbers, busy distracting himself from the thought that she wasn’t there. 

“Busy enough,” he said, and his lips twitched. “Do you want your surprise now or not?”

She’d forgotten about that, in her eagerness to get him kissing her again, but a surprise would be good too. Least, it _could_ be good. Hades had some fairly interesting ideas about gifts. 

“Sure. Then you can kiss me. Deal?”

“Deal,” he said, and dropped her hand. She was expecting a box, maybe a bag, so watched with interest when he went around pulling the shades at the windows and locking the door instead. 

“You’ve already lost me,” she said, then sank further in her seat as he turned back to her and shucked off his coat. His suit jacket followed and gods, he was being so slow as he folded it carefully on the bar. She was about to chastise him for taking his damn time until he looked her right in the eye and she realised he was doing it on purpose. He was teasing, least he was trying to, and if she didn’t know how much it would have hurt him, she’d have laughed. Instead, to save him face, she said, “If this is the surprise, I’d much rather be helping.”

“This ain’t it,” he said, a fine red blush colouring his ears, but he chuckled at her noise of frustration as she unbuttoned his vest and laid that out too. 

Persephone wished she’d poured another drink, just so her hands had something to do whilst Hades got on with whatever he was trying to do. Her fingers twitched to reach out and grab him, surprise be damned, but he finally got to removing his shirt so at least things looked like they were going the way that she hoped. 

She was kinda breathless as he took it off, as though she hadn’t seen it a million times already, and her heartbeat seemed to be matching the rhythm of the train on the track, and she _still_ wasn’t sure that this wasn’t his surprise after all. But that hardly mattered, when all she wanted to do was to touch him. 

Then he turned around, and she saw the surprise. 

“Oh Hades,” she said. “What have you done?”

He’d been collecting tattoos since the day she knew him, even had a few old ones from before she ever came around, but the one he’d been working on lately was the damn wall all up one of his arms, a few bricks appearing every once in a while.

But this was on the other arm, a brand new one. Just above his elbow, he’d had her name tattooed in stark black letters.

Persephone.

“It’s for you,” he said. “Realised I didn’t have one that was yours.”

His voice was uncertain. He was waiting for something from her, and it came alright, although it probably wasn’t what he was hoping for, cos she laughed.

It was a mistake and she knew it, and she was up on her feet before he could snatch up his shirt. _Gods_ , but didn’t her man have some funny ways. 

“Stop,” she said. “Come and sit. Let me see.”

He was still red about the ears but did as she said. The lettering was fine – whoever had done the work was good – but damn if it wasn’t tacky. Not ugly, but tacky. Still – she reached out and traced the ink with her fingertip. Lightly, real light, and she watched the fine hairs on his arm stand up. 

“Well, I’m surprised alright. You got me there.”

“You don’t like. It was a stupid idea.”

“Now, did I say that?” she asked, her lips so close to his ear that she felt the hairs on his neck stand up too. “It looks ridiculous, Hades. But ain’t no one apart from me gonna see it, I reckon.”

“No,” he said. “No one.”

“Tackiest thing you ever did, in a lifetime of makin’ tacky decisions. But you did it for me. My name there.”

“Yours,” he said, his breath hitching as her lips rested behind his ear.

“Then it ain’t stupid,” she grinned. “Sweetest thing you ever did.”

“I’m an idiot.”

“Sure are. My idiot.”

And she kissed him, because she definitely couldn’t wait any longer and he seemed to have stopped breathing altogether. 

He brought his hands up to hold her shoulders and she allowed him to push her back into the soft seats. She was aching for him, her silly husband, and she reached to pull his t-shirt over his head so she could get to him proper, press her hands against his cool skin. He growled low in his throat as she ran her hands over his chest. 

“Missed ya,” he rumbled. 

“I know.”

It didn’t take long for either of ‘em to lose what was left of their clothes, and she made sure to toss them all to the side, messy, just to hear that growl again. 

There wasn’t much room for fooling around on the bench seats, a lesson they’d long ago learned when he fell off and bled his ichor all over the velvet from a cut on his head. So she ended up sitting in his lap, kissing any part of his face that she could reach as he gently held her breasts in his big hands, teasing her with his thumbs. But she could play his game, and ground her hips down until he was gasping, and his grip faltered. 

“Enough of that,” she said. “Get on with it, please, before I do you damage.” 

He’d never denied her anything she asked for, and she pressed against his willing fingers until, finally, he moved his hand, and filled her up. They rocked with the movement of the train, so familiar, so safe. Persephone bit her lip against the stupid words that threatened to spill out of her, silly and sentimental words. He was here, and she was here, and they had six whole months together, and that was enough. 

His hands curled around her hips and he held her close as she smoothed over his neck and shoulders, pressing kisses to his head, and she didn’t give a damn about how much noise she was making, because this was her train and he was hers. 

With that thought, she wrapped her hand around the stupid tattoo as she came, and squeezed it just the same as she squeezed around him, and he groaned as he came just behind her. 

The air was cooling fast as they sat pressed together, but only when she shivered did he finally raise his head from her chest. He glanced down at her hand, still possessively wrapped around his arm, and smirked. 

“Not so bad, huh?”

“It’s still tacky,” she muttered. “But you did good. And I will be needing a blanket if don’t intend on us getting dressed a while.”

“You can get dressed if you want to. Ain’t gonna make you suffer the cold.”

“You ain’t putting on that shirt till I say so. Want to admire my surprise a mite longer.”

“A blanket it is, then.”

**Author's Note:**

> For the life of me I can't find it, but there was a photo a while ago where Patrick had this exact tattoo, and it made me cackle and put this fic on my list for when I had a spare five minutes. If anyone knows where that photo is/I didn't make it up in the middle of a mad fever dream, can you let me know? :P


End file.
